We can only assume Daniel Levy is a glutton for punishment because, after being pulled from pillar to post during Jose Mourinho’s 18 months in charge, the Tottenham Hotspur chairman has handed the reins to perhaps the only coach in European football who makes Mourinho look low-maintenance.
Through two excellent, yet exhausting, years at Inter Milan, Antonio Conte never attempted to hide his frustration, blasting the club’s Chinese owners on a regular basis for what he deemed an inadequate approach to recruitment.
“The lads are giving everything and going at full pelt. I can’t ask them for more than that,” Conte infamously said following a 3-2 Champions League defeat to Borussia Dortmund in November 2019, via The Guardian.
“We are talking about players who, apart from Diego Godin, have never won anything. Who do we turn to? Nicolo Barella, who has come from Cagliari, or (Stefano) Sensi, who came from Sassuolo?”
The implication was clear. Despite spending £150 million the previous summer, Conte felt his Inter side badly lacked match-winners and proven top-level performers.
He’d be forgiven for drawing the same conclusions about a Tottenham squad that threatened to throw away a three-goal lead during last night’s Europa Conference League clash with Vitesse Arnhem. Spurs aimed the shotgun directly at their own foot before grazing their big toe.
Conte would like to make Belotti one of his first Tottenham signings
With Tottenham linked to Milan Skriniar, Nicolo Barella and Dusan Vlahovic in the few days since Conte’s appointment, it seems the Spurs boss is already thinking ahead to a busy 2022 as far as signings are concerned.
According to Tuttosport, the 52-year-old has also set his sights on a player who, in 2017, emerged as his number one striker target at Chelsea – ahead, even, of the man who would fire his Inter side to Serie A glory four seasons later, Romelu Lukaku.
As reported by The Star, Conte was far from happy after learning Andrea Belotti, valued at £85 million at the time, wouldn’t be heading to Stamford Bridge.
Now 27, Belotti may not have developed into the world-class centre-forward he was expected to become in 2017.
But, firing home his 100th Serie A goal last weekend, the power-packed Italy international is still a striker to be feared. He has found the net at an impressive rate for a Torino side that narrowly avoided relegation last season.
Belotti, like Vlahovic, turned down a new contract recently and will be available for nothing in the summer.
Even Conte, deep down, could forgive Roman Abramovich for failing to splash out £85 million on Belotti. Daniel Levy, however, will have no such excuses if the Torino talisman becomes a free agent in July.
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